Tunable Transmission and Bistability in Left-handed Band-gap Structures

The defect-induced nonlinear transmission of a periodic structure created by alternating slabs of two materials with positive and negative refractive index was analyzed. The effects produced by a change of the defect position for two types of band gaps were also studied. Bistable switching and tunable nonlinear transmission in an unconventional band gap that corresponds to the vanishing average refractive index was demonstrated. The observed effects for two different types of band gaps were compared